Garden Project Urban Sustainability

  The early years at the 2 Phin garden were challenging. Many did not want to participate with a few special exceptions. Finally the family in the town houses across from our building built a trellised structure to grow squash and awesomely, a gardener created a large flower garden area at the back with small windmills. The flower garden made me so happy, and I was so grateful to her for doing it. I created this small flower bed at the same time as a place for flowers that ended up being the spot where several generations of Echinacea and Asters would greet the eye as people looked down our building walkway. The combination of flower beds and vegetable-growing gardens looked attractive and inspired us to push on. 

Welcome! I am person who dwells in social housing who had a dream of a garden. I grew up on a farm in Ontario and our family always gardened to provide food for ourselves, and to sell at Farmers Markets. It made no sense to me that city people did not garden food. In 2017 I broke ground for the garden one night and created three garden plots. No one had given me permission! I decided to go around to the people in my building and chat with them about the idea of gardens at the back. For many years there had been nothing but open lawn. In our building we have had a long-term problem with “guests” who visit to buy and sell drugs. These “guests” have decimated the cedars which used to run along the base of the building, by ripping off the branches to throw up at the windows, demanding to be let in. Inside and outside, they had many loud yelling matches over drugs. Living here is not easy. As a result, most neighbourly chats were about how the latest drug-related drama affected our w